“You wanna buy a webcam?”
*Briefcase opening scene*
We’ve got webcams of all shapes and sizes.
What…
what are you in the mood for, what kinda pleasure you into?
Honestly, webcams have gotten really good.
I never thought I’d say it, but holy balls, a few of these have immediate roles in my
setups moving forward.
Today we’re looking at SEVEN new webcams that have taken over the market this year,
including Elgato’s brand new Facecam Pro - the first actual 4K 60FPS webcam.
Let’s keep this simple, what’s good and what’s bad?
The Anker C300 is great if you need a simple conference cam, but it’s over sharpened
out of the box, only uses H264 and MJPEG, which means pre-compressed footage that only
even needs USB 2.0 speeds instead of giving better quality footage to take advantage of
the USB C connection on the back.
It’s probably my least favorite of the bunch today.
Especially since the manual UVC controls in Windows were completely broken.
Autofocus also pulses like mad.
The Dell UltraSharp Webcam and the Lumina cam are my least favorite.
The Dell won’t detect USB 3.0 speeds no matter what port I use.
So HDR and face tracking won’t work.
No clue what’s up with that.
Beyond that, I feel like it has to get significantly more contrasty than the other cameras to get
the exposure I want, and the white balance adjustment is TERRIBLE.
The Lumina cam was one of those “startup” cameras that had a big press ordeal when they
launched, but… ehh?
It comes with a mini color chart in the box which is cute, and originally advertised to
have an auto color calibration feature, but that’s not here yet.
Initial setup is frustrating, and, the controls work much better in the core app.
They do give you more color control than everyone else, which is nice - BUT after every tweak
of exposure or color it seems to reset a bit and then doesn’t land back where you had
it, or doesn’t feel like it, and was pretty confusing.
The software also uses Mac UI… on Windows.
Gross.
Plus, they require you to redeem a software key to match your camera’s serial number
and call it “free” as if a future owner might have to pay for it or won’t have access
to it?
There’s no reason for this, this throws up serious red flags.
Lumina can use your GPU to blur your background and sharpen JUST you up, but it performs about
the same as Nvidia Broadcast, of course.
I was most blown away by the Nexigo Iris and the Insta360 Link.
These cameras look phenomenal out of the box, though their auto exposure will most likely
blow you out.
Insta360’s software lets you keep auto exposure on with an exposure compensation, though,
meaning you can let it adjust as your lighting changes but still account for it over-exposing
by default.
The Nexigo controls everything via a remote, which is pretty neat.
The Nexigo Iris and it’s little brother the N970p are the ONLY webcams I’ve used
that let you control both Temperature AND Tint for White Balance, even Elgato’s software
can’t do that.
This means you can actually use manual while balance and tweak it pretty accurately.
This is a massive pet peeve of mine with most webcams, you can’t actually match auto white
balance with manual, without that second slider.
That cheaper N970p is an alright webcam, too, but the Iris just feels significantly better
all around to me.
I was blown away.
Both cams use old school USB 3.0 type B, but they come with big lengthy cables to make
up for it.
The Iris also has HDMI out with independent resolution control for running to a capture
card or host preview monitor or something.
Rad.
Nexigo cams have different “modes” for meetings, streaming, etc that save a preset
field of view and other settings, or you can save your own preset.
This rules.
My ONLY complaint about the Nexigo Iris other than not having 4K60 like the Elgato is that
the housing seems to cause some lens flaring with overhead lights, as the light catches
on the edge of the housing and bounces it into the lens.
This kinda sucks.
Elgato’s new Facecam Pro shares the same 1/1.8” Sony Starvis sensor as the Nexigo
Iris, though Elgato is pulling 60FPS out of it.
Elgato’s Camera Hub software and auto exposure and auto white balance outperform every other
webcam on the market, by far.
It very consistently NAILS the right exposure and skin tone for me in a way no one else
has managed to pull off yet.
Camera Hub can use a lot of RAM at times, and there’s no Tint slider for white balance
as I previously mentioned, but it’s solid.
Thankfully, the flickering issue that still plagues the original Facecam is not present
on the Pro.
The Facecam Pro always captures the sensor at 4K, so even if you are only pulling 1080p
into your streaming software, you’re benefitting from super sampling or downscaling of the
4K image to 1080p, which helps with noise reduction and sharpness in the image processor
in the camera.
My only major complaint with its look is the autofocus.
Where the Nexigo cams seem to be fixed focus and the Insta360 Link absolutely leads the
pack with really fast and smooth autofocus, the Facecam Pro’s autofocus is just kinda…
alright?
It adjusts a LOT and instead of snapping right to where it needs to be like the Link, it
hunts around, further extending the amount of time spent adjusting.
For Facecam or product shots, I’m not a fan.
I’d generally recommend locking off manual focus with a standard webcam setup anyway,
BUT if you’re wanting to use this new auto face tracking craze, you’ll want it.
SPEAKING OF WHICH!
Most of these cameras, save for the Elgato and the Anker C300 can do some form of “AI
face tracking” or “ePTZ tracking.”
They’re all about the same, zooming in a bit and awkwardly resizing or moving around
to try to follow your face.
It’s not a very convincing effect and not super useful in most scenarios.
The Insta360 Link is a proper PTZ camera - like the OBSBot Tiny and Tiny 4K, but with a much
nicer sensor just shy of the size of the Iris and Facecam Pro’s sensor - and actually
follows you around.
It’s awesome.
It also has modes for overhead object views and tracking a whiteboard!
Neat.
Most of these are expensive.
The Nexigo Iris, Insta360 Link, Lumina, and Facecam Pro will cost you about $300, with
the Dell not far behind.
Is it worth spending $300 on a webcam?
Based on the comments I’ve seen repeatedly over the years - yes there are plenty of people
who want it.
And frankly, the simplicity of these while still delivering on quality means I have PLENTY
of extra camera angles I want to leverage in my studio that I could not
do before.
But yes, IN THEORY - though this has changed since my videos in 2020 - you could still
get something like an a5000 or a5100 from Sony, or Canon M200 around $300, pair with
a cheapo capture card and dummy battery and have a “real camera” for your webcam.
But those extra pieces do cost more and it takes a lot more to figure out and use all
that setup all the time.
If you’re just teaching or doing meetings or something, a webcam is just fine.
And if you’re just getting started streaming - go with something far cheaper.
Links to everything are in the description.
let me know what sick webcams I’ve missed in the comments below.
Remember to be kind, rewind.